maladie du pays

noun

Homesickness.

OriginFrench maladie du pays →
First used 18th c.
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Meanings

nounmaladie du pays (uncountable)
  1. archaicuncountableHomesickness.First known use 18th c.

    I felt a wish for happiness and thought with melancholy delight of my beloved cousin and longed, with a devouring maladie du pays, to see once more the blue lake and rapid Rhone, that had been so dear to me in early childhood […].

    1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, published 1 January 1818, →OCLC

Origin

  1. Frenchmaladie du pays“homesickness”
  2. Englishmaladie du pays

From French maladie du pays (“homesickness”).

More words from French

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

maladie du pays. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/maladie%20du%20pays

MLA

“maladie du pays.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/maladie%20du%20pays. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “maladie du pays,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/maladie%20du%20pays.

Source: maladie du pays on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.